. >> we've heard plenty of people calling for new gun control laws, but very little from the national rifle association until now. in a bizarre news conference that was interrupted twice by protesters, the head of the nra. it's the same line we've heard before from the nra, but has the country's relationship with guns fundamentally changed since newtown? and what we saw last night from house republicans is yet another symptom of the real problem for the gop. they don't believe in compromise. and they've lurched too far to the right. we begin with where things stand on the fiscal cliff, msnbc political analyst and msnbc contributor jared bernstein. jentle men, president obama tonight said he had spoken with speaker boehner in addition to senate majority leader harry reed. >> i just spoke to speaker boehner and i also met with senator reed. in the next few days, i've asked leaders of congress to work towards a package that prevents a tax hike on middle class americans, protects unemployment insurance for two million americans and lays the groundwork for further work on both growth and d

thee commitment laws over the last 3030, 40 years has made it very diffict to compel someone to get treatment or be detained in a mental institution. these killers, it is not as if there is a lack of funds for treatment. it is the lack of the ability of aarent's with an ill and dangerous child, to gethe help. the legal loopholes that you have to go through e such that it is almost impossible. you end up with the tucson shooter. everyone who spoke about himad a sense that he was psychotic. on guns, the problem is this. unless you are willing to completely disarm the populalation come as you do in canada or britain or australia in the 1990's, and it works and you have a decrease in gun crime, and if you allow to grandfather existing weapons come as what happened in the 1994 assault weapons law, at which time there were 25 million high-capacity magazines alrea in cculation y do not accomplish anything. the studies of the 10-year experiment of the ban on assault weapons shows it had d no effec >> in april 1968 i was in ebenezer baptist churcin atlanta for the funeral of martin luther ki

. they have put in blockades and are making laws that no more than five people can gather. the government is very wary about what is going to happen next. >> russia has invited the officers of the syrian national coalition for parks, and is urging president bashar al-assad to do the same. they say russia must first condemn the president before dialogue him take place. russia says the transitional government should be put in place, with bashar al-assad staying in power. >> we have already had dialogue in cairo. we expressed readiness to meet with them, and are still ready. as we understand, they do not have any objection regarding the offer to leave. we are against interference from outside parties in syria. we understand we need a ceasefire. we agreed the geneva convention contains the elements to move forward for political settlement. >> in the caesarian title, schilling has devastated large parts of the city, including a large suburbs. the rebels say they have also made gains in eastern syria. fighters say they have captured this oil field. tens of thousands of mainly sunni i

, infrastructure and monopoly and rule of law are pretty important for anybody getting rich. >> remember, etch-a-sketch, most damage to the romney campaign came from people from the romney campaign. etch-a-sketch, you turn over a page and there will be something else. at the end the american people didn't know who he was or they didn't like the person that was emerging. what should have been an election about the economy came an election about empathy or lack thereof. >> that was the biggest game changer was 47%. david korn gets credit for most decisive school of the whole season. >> jon: more news watch ahead, first if you think you see something of media bias, get on twitter. why did the media ignore some of the big of the stories of the year? >> mr. president, you went out of your way to avoid the use of terrorism in connection with the libya attack. do you believe it was a terrorist ago? >> it's too early to tell what group was involved, but obviously it was an attack on americans. we are going to be working with the libyan government to make sure we bring these folks to justice one way or t

his father-in-law and next to him, his wife, rio, bill manbo's mother-in-law. they were both immigrants from japan. trained as a mechanical draftsman, but did a number of different jobs and he came to the united states and ultimately took up farming in the mid-1920s in the work of the california, southeast of downtown los angeles. they had three children. on the right is the youngest child. that is eunice. she was about 16% even this photograph. on the other hand on the left is mary, who then became mary manbo. on the left is the photographer's wife, mary manbo. and then is bill and mary sun, really. also called bill, that he was called billy and the family. he came in 1940s if this is some 10 shots in 1943. is three years old touching his toy airplane. mary went to the frank wiggins school as well. she was studying to become a seamstress. she became a seamstress and it's costing design for theater come any among other jobs. and there was a third child, a boy. by 1941, cne who is not pictured in this photograph the jamaican later was at you see berkeley in the rotc program in

private service of the mine which is illegal by the way under the u.s. law. they were busted by the clinton administration, stripped of insurance, but they have henry kissinger on the door, so they got everything worked out. this has 18,000 people working at 15,000 feet. straight down through glacier. it's the biggest gold mine and basically the biggest cotton - the world. but, people are shocked. there's a huge battle going on because they're putting 300,000 tons of waste every single day in the two rivers without, like in america you can't do that. but there you just play with on and it doesn't matter. so, what you are asking is to be pushed off and if you do you push it puts a to china who doesn't care. yeah it's much worse. at the bottom line is america is actually good about mining in terms of world standards we have the highest standards really of safety the you are talking about huge amounts of toxic metals that they admittedly don't know how to control. it is in the they don't want to be and i do not think they are evil by nature they just don't know how to do at. in arizona

anybody can get. >> i think all that is true. i do think the change in the commitment laws over the last 30 or 40 years has made it very difficult to compel someone to get treatment or be detained in a mental institution. these killers, is not as if there is a lack of funds for treatment. it is the lack of the ability of a parent would obviously have been a child, to go through the legal loopholes, is such that it is almost impossible. you end up with the tucson shooter who everyone spoke about. they had a sense he was psychotic. on guns, the problem is this. unless you are willing to completely disarm the population, as you do in canada or britain or australia did in the 1990's, and that it works and you have a decrease in gun crimes, if you allow grandfather of existing weapons, as would happen with the 1994 assault weapons law, at which time there were 25 million of the high- capacity magazines already in circulation, you do not accomplish anything. the studies of the 10-year experiment with the ban on assault weapons in the 1990's up to 2004 shows it had no effect. >> in april 1

. they are leading moral discussions and the people know they cannot beat freedom or sharia law. >> he has been a hugely controversial figure. how you think he will emerge? stronger or weaker? >> he seems to be strong after the constitutional referendum, but i'm afraid you will get weaker. not able to bring egyptians together and if he will not lead to more division in the country. egypt is on the verge of economic collapse. they need a strong leadership which is having confidence in political issues and that is what the muslim brotherhood is not having right now. >> do you think mohamed morsi is capable to leave them out of the economic crisis? >> he is not the right man at the moment because he does not seem to be president of the egyptians. >> and egyptian author and political scientists living in germany. thank you for the insight leading up to the elections in january. russian president vladimir putin is on a trip to delhi. >> they signed an arms deal said to be worth more than 200 million euro. they're buying more than 40 russian fighter jets. he said they're working on advanced

law banning day conversion therapy, pugt the law on hold until it can hear arguments on the issue the law banning conversions be there aims to turn gay minors straight was to take affect january 1. counselors and two families say their teen-aged sons benefited from it sought the injunction after a lower court redees -- refuse aid request. >> news that 800 jobs in chevron headquarters are being moved to houston, texas. david louie is live tonight and sounds like officials there got very little warning. >> they didn't get very much warning. the mayor tells me that he got the bad news yesterday afternoon from chevron but apparently, the plan to moist jobs to texas had been underway for months. >> this is not something you want to see. it's a big impact here. >> 800 jobs represents just under a 4th of the 3500 employees at the san ramone headquarters. chevron says it told workers but didn't make it public until sending out an e mail yesterday. five business units are involved, all support the oil exploration in the gulf of mexico and it's alternative fuel research in houston. it will

upholding the law, gina eunice, seen here in an orange jumpsuit, found herself on the wrong side of the law. >> she was studying criminal justice, hoping to become a police officer. >> reporter: her attorney says eunice was about to graduate from college. the district attorney charged the 23-year-old woman with driving under the influence, hit-and-run and vehicular manslaugher. those are just some of the six charges she's facing after police say she drove her car into a group of people last week at the twin peaks vista point in san francisco. the accident killed a 56-year- old woman visiting from china and injured two others. police say the impact knocked the three pedestrians about 30 feet down a hillside. while the victim's family did not appear in court, the suspect's relatives came to the hearing. they declined to talk on camera. but the suspect's attorney did speak, saying gina eunice is praying for the victims, the yao family. >> the entire eunice family is destroyed by what happened, and i think it's fair to say that their main concern is for the yao family. >> reporter: dist

nely 2,000 people have signed a petition on the white house web site calling for new gun laws. underscoring that plea, a gunman killed three people today west of harrisburg, pennsylvania. he was killed later in a shootout with state troopers. since the attack, the nra has been the subject of heavy criticism, but its leaders had refused to do any interviews before this weekend, including the newshour. the group broke its near silence in washington, d.c., this morning. vice president wayne lapierre would not answer any questions, but reaa nearly 25-minute- long statement that called for armed guards in every school. here are excerpts of what he said. he was interrupted twice by protesters. >> the national rifle association's four million mothers, fathers, sons and daughters join the nation in horror, outrage, grief and earnest prayer for the families of wtown, connecticut, who have suffered such incomprehensible loss as a result of this unspeakable crime. for all the noise and anger directed at us over the past week, no one-- nobody-- has addressed the most important, pressing a

difference. we have ongoing efforts on the rule of law and military justice. we spend millions of dollars to work with the military during a wholesale way on mentor ship and to make sure that human rock -- human rights and the law are instilled drought. -- instill that throughout. >> and where you have seen efforts not working at all, where is it? is it the same? >> again, the challenges are paramount. these are forces that do not howff a great amount of discipline. they do not have great training. enda in many cases, they do not have great education. there is a capacity problem within the drc, and it makes it harder to try to train them up in a way that meets the standards that we would like to see in the military. >> would you like to comment further? gregg's yes, i would. -- >> yes, i would. i would like to say that security sector reform in the army has been a failure, for the most part. it is a failure because of all of things that my colleague has said, but is also a failure because of the elements appear of corruption. soldiers are not paid on a regular basis. they are not

ohio launching a test program. and arizona proposing a change to state law to allow an educator in each school to carry a gun. >> if you have somebody come in that is mentally ill with a weapon and they're killing people, an administrator or teacher can figure that out. >> the move comes after the recent shooting massacre in newtown, connecticut. a gunman shot and killed 26 people at sandy hook elementary school. 20 of the victims were young children. gun rights advocates saying teachers can act more quickly than law enforcement in the critical first few minutes to protect children during the school shooting. but some teachers strongly disagree with the idea. >> i think it is ridiculous. i don't think that teachers should be carrying guns. i don't think violence is the answer and the biggest thing i don't think is i don't think it will solve the problem. >> reporter: only a handful of states including utah and new hampshire allow concealed weapons in public schools. >>> we still have plenty ahead. your weather, traffic and all of your stop stories. >> fox 5 morning news at 4:30 sta

thousand strong rally in support of the constitution and implementation of sharia law the two sides hold rocks at each other they are cars and buses something these buses belong to the muslim brotherhood police intervened with take out beating seventy seven injured so this obviously comes on the the several instances of violence is. in iraq few weeks ago inquiring from the president with rival groups even ten dead in terms of people are saying here on the streets the country is divided so three can the constitution say will only in force the president to a dictatorship but it lacks a key social economic right to have drafted by islamist dominated assembly for the constitution say it is essential for the progress towards democracy and that after the congress is dross they say we will have parliamentary elections in the first round of course the votes of people voted in fifty seven percent in favor of the constitution analysts believe that this will be another yes vote this is largely because of the seventeen governorates voting today many of them a rule of cultural places where the m

, we've been hearing for plenty calling for new gun control laws but little from the nra until now. in a bizarre meeting, the head of the nra said the solution to gun vie lerchs in this country is simple. more guns. armed officers, in fact, in every school. it's the same line we've heard from nra, but has the country's relationship with guns fundamentally changed since newtown? and what we saw is yet another symptom of a real problem for the gop. they don't believe in compromise and they've lurched too far to the right. >>> plus replacing hillary clinton, john kerry gets the job he's waited for his whole life. president obama tapped john kerry as the next secretary of state. >>> and let me finish with the new movie about getting bin laden and how one person can make a huge difference. >>> we begin with the fiscal cliff. david corn is the editor of mother cliff. gentlemen, president obama tonight said he had spoken with speaker boehner in addition to meeting with senate majority leader harry reid. >> i just spoke to speaker boehner, and i also met with senator reid. in the next few

legislation that is going to change that. if there was a gun law that would change the fact that a mentally disturbed man couldn't steal a gun, i would be for it, but the simple fact is, judy, i don't care what law you're going to put in place, the mentally disturbed man is going to steal a gun. >> you can't abolish-- >> he didn't have to steal it, he took it from his mother, what happened in columbine, took them from their parents and the n.r.a., i consider to be a completely utterly destructive organization in this society if they want everybody to have a gun they need to start talking to people how to handle a gun. here is an idea, secure your guns. my brother keeps his guns in a safe. and my father-- fr frnl. >> that's the law. >> are people prosecuted? >> that's a great point. >> and n.r.a. is on this stuff-- i want to nerve what i have to say. i'm tired of hearing how there's this anti-gun agenda. it's an anti-killing spree agenda, it's not an anti-gun agenda. i don't have a problem with guns, i grew up with guns. i have a problem with people having magazines clips, whatever

protection of minorities, equality, but there were a lot of caveats like as prescribed by law that were kind of these catchalls that again opened the door to future abuse or limits on citizenship or on citizen rights. >> so rights were articulated but not guaranteed? >> rights were articulated but not guaranteed, and actually open to constraint and to limitations through future legislation. overall, the system didn't change dramatically. you still had a very highly centralized form of government, still very, very presidential, although it is theoretically a mixed system. it still leaves most of the power in the president's hands. and so in terms of the structure of government institutions and checks and balances, there hasn't been a whole lot new introduced. in terms of the process, i think this is where it has taken a bad situation, ordinary controversies, what might have been considered ordinary controversies, and actually made the situation much worse because at each stage the process was fundamentally flawed and only became more so over time. and we can get into details but i don't

educators dead, we have heard plenty of people calling for new gun control laws but very little from the national rifle association until now. in a bizarre news conference, the head of the nchl ra said the solution of gun violence in this country is simple, more guns. armed officers in every school. it is the same line we have heard before from the nra. has the country's relationship with guns fundamentally changed since newtown. what we saw last night from house republicans is yet another symptom of a real problem for the gop. they don't believe in compromise. they have lurnlged too far to the right. president obama tapped kerry to be the next secretary of state. let me finish with the great new movie about getting bin laden and how one person can make a huge difference. we begin with where things stand on the fiscal cliff. david corn is the washington bureau chief for mother jones magazine and msnbc contributor, jared bernstein was chief economic adviser to vice president biden. gentlemen, president obama tonight said he had spoken with speaker boehner in addition to meeting with s

, national security law on both sides. we are very pleased to announce the book cover has received the 2012 american graphic design award and it is our hope not only will the outside win an award but perhaps the inside. .. critical and important debates. we have one of the senior members working in the back. we want to think jack for being here and all the support that you have given, not only in the book but our committee since you have joined the bar association. appreciated. i speak on behalf of all of our committee. we are pleased to say that we have a number of positive responses. the former national counterintelligence executive, the director, bob bryant, one of the best of the key issues of the national security arena. what makes a stand that is the bipartisan dialogue, intellectual rigor, timeliness, and readability. a must read for practitioners and policy makers and the general public. i take with of would like to do that this point is sort of explain how the book came about. the person going task to do that is bernie horowitz. as briefly explain the process by which he decided to

david for 35 years. as he's mentioned, he was a president back then, too, of harvard law review. so he is used to holding the reins of power. a chief justice also holds the reins of power, the only difference is that a chief justice must hold them lightly, lest he discover they're not attached to anything. [laughter] perhaps the faculty feels the same way about a university president. [laughter] nevertheless, i know from long and personal experience that david brings to rice a special vision, talent and leadership. this school is fortunate to have him at the helm, and i know he feels blessed to be there. i'm especially pleased that david invited me to visit rice as part of the centennial celebration of the university's founding. and i extend my sincere congratulations to the trustees, the faculty, students and alumni on your first great century. the founding of a new university is always an historic occasion, but the founding iserrer moanny -- ceremony for rice was truly extraordinary. i went back to read the newspaper accounts from october 1912 that reported the event. the papers r

ban on americans adopting russian kids is about to be signed into law president putin is ready to put a response to washington sanctions on the russian officials and. reaction in the couple of minutes. and iran says it will take u.n. observers inspect its military bases in the west he says it's pressure but they'll freeze it lucky to for them to this report on to the break. if you're from my generation or younger and you were born into the one percent that i have a lot of college debt i sure do you know the deal used to be that you paid a significant amount for education but in turn that gave you a much higher salary later but now the system works in reverse many young americans studied very hard to not make any money at all around nine percent of americans with student loans have defaulted and at least nine but maybe up to eighteen percent are ninety days late with their payments given the situation the people at u.c. berkeley were nice enough to give away a million dollars in scholarships for everyone everyone that's an illegal immigrant yeah that's right if you're born in ameri

opposition than his programs on race. congress had passed a law forbidding women to serve on fighting ships or in fighting planes. so by law women did not serve on an equal basis with men. women were also not permitted to attend service academies. at this time it was legal only to assign women to hospital or transport ships. bud understood that the culture believed women should avoid aggressive activities, but once again he took another view, and here's his view. i want to quote it. i have no problem supporting women in combat for two reasons. one, i remember well my grandmother's stories about fighting off the indians along with her husband as they crossed the plains and, two, the most vicious and cunning enemy i ever had to fight was a viet cong woman. close the quote. so in 1971 bud formed one of these wave retention groups. retention groups were these groups that he created to study problems in the navy; race relations, women in the navy, etc. and these, this wave retention group revealed general dissatisfaction with the reality that women were still being assigned primarily as re

this conversation. >> jimmy? >> understand that the executive branch is required under federal law to notify the legislative branch that, fact, they are going to come up against the deadline, precisely why it is -- >> uses the phrase default. we are not going -- the u.s. government isn't going pay its debts. we are going to be like greece. that was -- everybody -- both sides, by the way, republicans and democrats, both used the phrase default. you know perfectly well how it works in the government. you can make choices. >> i hate to break the news to you but -- i don't think anyone other than watching cnbc anyone actually cares and nobody believes the federal government will not pay social security or other debts. >> are you kidding me? i think they do. that's what they start with. right? start with the social security checks aren't going to go out. then -- what do people do, call their congressmen? the elderly get frightened. they think they won't have their weekly paychecks. >> this would not be the first time anyone from the executive branch tried to scare senior sit sense what do

years. here we are today, december 19, and these law changes which i referenced earlier, the end of the bush era tax cuts, the dreaded sequester, across the board cuts of $1.2 trillion in spending will begin to take effect the first of next year. the good news is the white house and republicans have been trading proposals and at least yesterday appeared to be moving closer together. i would have much preferred that they would be talking about a bigger package than they've discussed but nonetheless to reach a package that would resolve some of these issues would be an important step forward and i think help promote certainty that would be important to our economy. on the revenue side of the equation, i just want to remind you what it's taken in the past to balance the budget. we hear talk on average revenue is in the 18% of g.d.p. range n. getting back to average you will should be sufficient. the problem with that is we have never balanced the budget in the last 50 years based on 18% of g.d.p. in revenue. balancedtimes we've going back to 1969, you can see that revenue has been about 20

implementation of sharia law the two sides hold rocks at each other they cars and buses some saying these buses belong to the muslim brotherhood police intervened with tear gas leaving seventy seven injured so this obviously comes on to several instances of violence is in alexandria in cairo a few weeks ago in cairo and from the presidential palace rival groups clashed leaving ten dead in terms of people are saying here on the streets the country is divided those who are against the constitution say it would only enforce a presidential dictatorship that lacks a key social economic rights that was drafted by islamist dominated assembly for the constitution say it is essential for the progress towards democracy after the conditions drop so they say we will have parliamentary elections neither side seems to be backing down so we expect their own rests in the streets of egypt. on the first day job the referendum saw the majority supported the charter so what are the expectations for saturday's round them. in the first round of course the votes of people voted to fifty seven percent in f

the laws started to deregulate the computers brought on a new speed in a volume so gordon gekko was a a a conglomeration of people that we met and michael douglas portrayed it was slick charming and apparently it attracted a lot of young people to go to work on wall street the film was a surprise hit surprise. you know because an arcane movie about business numbers it doesn't necessarily appeal to the movie going audience twenty years later i went back for money never sleeps the sequel to wall street goes out come out of jail michael that is out of jail and the wall street that i found was even crazier it was far greater than i had remembered in the eight years that i was stunned millions of dollars were now trains of dollars and again the banks that now the banks were deeply involved as you know in in trading and making profits for themselves as opposed to the economy or for their for the year for their clients so the world has gotten more topsy turvy and wall street more irresponsible my father would recognize. you know wall street could be considered an animal unto itself it has

. next year to the benefit of the syrian people in the region and to the benefit of international law as such and i also agree that it would be great to see it happen rather. sooner than later. within the year two thousand and thirteen will contribute every effort. unfortunately this will hardly be possible. first even though that would have been a great present to mr brahimi who have his birthday on january first and i would like to congratulate him. thank you everyone and happy new year to all of you. happy new year. yes the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov the u.n. arab league envoy lakhdar brahimi in a news conference in moscow talking about syria and the for his part said all warring parties must lay down arms and enter negotiations and he rejected criticism over russia's position on the conflict of course we'll have much more reaction to this throughout the day here on r.t. . now moving on iran has entered a new phase in its naval war games in the strait of hormuz which is a vital oil shipping route the exercise involves warships submarines and jet fighters names to show t

california law banning gay conversion therapy. ninth circuit court of appeals issued emergency order putting the law on hold until it can hear full arguments on this issue. the law banning conversion therapy that aims to turn gay minor straight was to take effect on january 1st. counts lors who practice the therapy and 2 family who say the teenager son benefit from it saw it injunction after lower court refused their request. >>> big oil making a big move out of the bay area. chevron announced today it's moving 800 workers out of its san ramone headquarters for greener pasture in texas. here's business technology reporter david. >> it's not something that you want to see losing 800 job. that's a big impact here in san ramone. >>reporter: 800 jobs is a fourth of the total work force at san ramone headquarters. chevron told affected work twors months ago but didn't make it public until it sent out an all employee e-mail yesterday. all 5 of these support 7 ron and all workers now work side by side in houston. chevron said the headquarters will remain in san ramone. stewart is pres

? -- winging it? >> it took a while to write the book. i had a law practice here in washington for many, many years. i did keep notes, and i felt ultimately, um, that i would put it together, and i'd piece it together for a magazine article. and then it expanded, and it became what it is right now. but always behind in my mind i want young people to know, i want young people to know that this ugliness happened. and so it took a while. my brother is a writer up in new york, and he was my editor for a while. i fired him three times, and i went back with the help of my wife back into my first year legal research because i had to certify, authorize this was a piece of nonfiction, and you have to put down. i felt with a memoir you could just wig it. well, you can't because once you start highlighting things, you have to get authority for it. you even have to get a concept from people who you put photographs in, the consent of the army, consent of all -- i had a letter from james meredith right after i left which is in the book it, and i wanted to put that in. my wife reminded me, well, you n

. >> and in spain activists are against an conviction law which strips people of their property but leaves to pay their mortgage payment in full. >> a spokesman said the sunshinery was successful and she's likely to go home in a few days. the 87-year-old was a prime minister. >> a human rights group questioned britain's alleged case of torture. they have agreed to pay $23 million to iraqi who is say they were illegal detained by british soldiers. but activists are demanding a public inquiry in all cases. >> an iraqi suspect is being interrogated by british soldiers. he tells them he's in pain. [beep] >> it's videos like this submitted to british courts that have helped force the u.k. government to make payouts of the payout over the space of three years. beatings, threat, sleep depravation, sexual humiliation say amount to systematic torture. >> you have to be very careful before you start embarking on anything that might turn into torture. the question is, of course, whether sleep depravation, whether food depravation, water depravation whether putting somebody in a cell without an

three main points he's saying. he wants to make sure there's a law passed that ensures 98% of americans know their taxes are not going to go up in just under two weeks. he also wants to make sure that 2 million americans who would otherwise lose their unemployment benefits if we went over the fiscal cliff would be able to keep those benefits. and finally he says, look, we can take a look at the longer term proposals, the larger reform at a later point. just lay the ground work at this point. we also know before the president left, he talked by phone with house speaker john boehner. he met in person with harry reid, although what the private happened, we don't know. but publicly things sound a lot like they have for the past few weeks. take a listen. >> every member of congress believes that, every democrat, every republican. so there is absolutely no rea n reason, none, not to protect these americans from a tax hike. at the very least, let's agree right now what we already agree on. let's get that done. >> what the president has offered so far simply won't do anything to solve

law. the law says the congress has to pass a budget every year, the senate has to pass a budget but harry reid has chosen not to bring a budget year after year after year. he's not committed to dealing with the major problem of the country, the spending. >> and it's sort of interesting. nevada re-election him, that's their choice but the rest of the country is held hostage. people in my home state of wisconsin, if they don't like harry reid has majority leader there's nothing they can do. they can put pressure on their senators, but for the most part senator harry reid is in a very powerful position. >> i think he's taking orders from president obama. this is time for the president of the united states to lead. there's only one person who has the pen who can sign into law the law preventing us from going over the cliff and if the president actually wanted to get it done, he would tell harry reid and others this is what we had to do and he would make the arrangement to make sure we didn't go over the cliff. so i think he's just -- senator reid is just playing the role for president o